Rail link hopes rise

ON RIGHT TRACK: Hawke's Bay Regional Council may consider funding repairs of the mothballed Napier-Gisborne railway line. PHOTO/PAUL TAYLOR

The Hawke's Bay Regional Council may consider funding the multimillion-dollar cost of repairing the damaged Napier-Gisborne rail link as part of a renewed push to get the mothballed line reopened.

In March KiwiRail shut down a bid by the council to put together a business case to reopen the Wairoa-Napier section of the line as a freight service for foresters in the Wairoa area wanting to ship logs to Napier Port.

KiwiRail said at the time it was not prepared to extend a time limit it had given the council, and wanted to instead look at "rail-enabled tourism ventures" on the line.

However, after further discussions with the council during recent months, KiwiRail yesterday published tender documents seeking proposals from freight and tourism rail operators interested in bidding for a "licence to occupy" the line.

Regional councillor Alan Dick, who chairs the regional transport committee, said the council was working as a "facilitator" in a bid to ensure interested transport companies made a successful pitch to use the line.

"We intend to play a facilitative role to try to ensure that a viable and acceptable operator is able to bid so that the line can be re-established," he said.

The line was mothballed by KiwiRail in 2012 after storms caused extensive damage on the section of the track between Nuhaka (north of Wairoa) and Gisborne. Repair costs to get the line fully open between Napier and Gisborne have been estimated at between $3.7million and $4.5million.

The regional council has set aside $5.46million in its long-term plan to help re-establish the rail link. That money had previously been earmarked for a stake in a rail operating business but Mr Dick said one option now was for it to go towards repairing the track.

He said he was delighted KiwiRail had opened the door again through the tender process.

"To have the definite prospect of a solution one way or the other is something we've been working on for three years. We've become quite frustrated along the way but we're very pleased with KiwiRail's initiative."

Regional council chairman Fenton Wilson also welcomed the tender opportunity but said the council would need convincing before it committed the money it had set aside for rail to repairing the washed-out sections of track.

"We're going to want to see a pretty good case for co-investment with someone on the basis that we've got a stated return of 6 per cent [per annum on money invested in the rail project]," he said. "Nothing's off the table, but there's certainly nothing on the table at the moment for us to consider."

The Government, including Tukituki National MP Craig Foss, has dismissed efforts to reopen the line for freight services, saying there was clear evidence such a service was not viable.

But Napier Labour MP Stuart Nash, an advocate for re-establishing the rail link, said it was welcome news that KiwiRail had signalled it was "open for business".

"Now it's up to the regional council, and whatever consortia they can put together, to come up with a robust business case that says: this can be done, give us a go at it," Mr Nash said.

"I think it is hugely positive. If this is done well, which I believe it will be, this could be the start of a really innovative way of managing the country's provincial and rural rail networks."